


Cave Monsters and Conundrums

by ArdentAspen2



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Gen, Luke has Bad Feelings about This, Slightly Alternate Universe, cave monsters, lost in a cave, only slightly, running away from monsters, short fic is short, slight Dad Vader, spelunking is a bad idea in star wars, vague references to Old Republic Era stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 06:56:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11572752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArdentAspen2/pseuds/ArdentAspen2
Summary: (brought over from my deviantart account)The search for a new Rebel base location turns sour when theMillenium Falcontakes a detour to Lehon.Han is antsy, Chewie is concerned, Luke has a Bad Feeling, and Leia is thinking those bones in the caves were left behind bysomething.But cave monsters really aren't the only thing they should be worried about.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally three short chapters and one picture on my deviantart account (I'll try to figure out how to add the picture if I can), but it was already in the right format so after a suggestion from someone on tumblr, I figured I'd send it over here. The first two chapters are older than _Violence in the Library_ , so you'll probably notice that my way of writing Luke and Vader has evolved somewhat since then.

Lehon had _seemed_ like a decent place to scout for a potential bases, as it had been uninhabited for hundreds of years and was filled with enough ancient wreckage to disguise properly junky looking ships.

Captain Solo had taken umbrage at the suggestion that the _Millennium Falcon_ would be perfect to scout the region, and only brightened when he heard that Princess Organa intended to come along.

They were neither of them so subtle as they apparently thought they were.

Not that he showed any such emotion when she boarded the ship, of course. And not that Luke had been able to notice. Chewbacca had aimed a knowing look at Wedge Antilles before taking off and Wedge had returned to Rogue Squadron to update the "how long before Solo figures out he's in love" betting pool, only rivaled by the "how long before the Princess figures out Solo is in love" betting pool.

Once on Lehon, they group had discovered a series of caves on one of the islands the seemed large enough to house a wing of fighters. It would have been perfect for a small area to stage patrols from. Of course, that was when everything went downhill.  
Luke began complaining of the cold ten minutes after they'd left the ship.

"What are you talking about, kid?" Han grumbled, "This is a tropical planet!" He refrained from mentioning that the place gave him the creeps, reasoning that the last thing they needed was for Luke to start talking Jedi nonsense. Nevertheless, his shoulders hitched almost imperceptibly at every sound.

"Actually," Leia spoke up, pulling her sleeves a little further down her wrists, "It _is_ a bit chilly in here. Perhaps because we're underground?"

Luke nodded absently, conceding but not really accepting the explanation. Something bad had happened here, he was certain, but it wasn't anything recent. The malice that seemed to ooze out of the stone and breathe through the passageways felt stale -- not that he was sure how he knew what stale malice was supposed to feel like -- and he had a suspicion that if it had been any more recent, he wouldn't have been able to breathe with the weight of the anger and pain pressing down on them.

"Guys, I don't think this is a good place for a base," Luke gulped, one hand straying towards his blaster.

"Why not, Luke?" Leia turned, and winced apologetically when her handheld lamp sent beams of light directly into her friend's eyes. Trusting Luke's instincts had worked to their advantage before, and she was prepared to hear him out.

"I don't know what it is," Luke admitted, "But this whole planet is just kind of... _off_. There aren't supposed to be any sentients here, but I feel...I don't know, echoes? Like I can feel where people used to be and it's almost like there's a part of them that never left. Is that a thing you can feel with the Force?" Immediately after, he realized the foolishness of asking his friends that question and flushed. "Right. Nevermind, sorry."

"What, you think it's haunted?" Han was obviously trying to sound teasing, but Leia noted that his shoulders were tight and he was checking every shadow.  
He knew as well as she did that Luke didn't just get jumpy for no reason.

"Well, no, not exactly," Luke mumbled, "At least, I don't think so." Then again, he'd heard Ben's voice a few times since the Death Star, and Ben was _definitely_ not living anymore, so who was to say- Luke cut the thought off quickly.  
He had enough trouble sleeping at night. He didn't need to start thinking about ghosts as well.

"Well," Han grunted, kicking over a rusted heap that had been some kind of machine once upon a time, "We may as well check out the rest of the cave, see if there's anything salvageable in here. Tell you what, why don't Chewie and I check out the back passages, and you two stay closer to the front so Luke doesn't have to keep getting the heebie jeebies?"

"Seems sensible enough, Captain Solo," Leia said, and either missed or ignored the little sparkle in his eyes when she said it. "Keep your comlink on. You have our frequencies, right?"

"Sure, your Worship," Han drawled, "But the deeper underground we go, the more likely we are to get interference. You might have to wait a while to hear my voice in that case, unless you want to tag along."

Leia had never heard someone verbally roll their eyes before, but evidently Chewbacca was quite adept at it. The pair disappeared down into a tunnel, arguing with each other over whether one of them had used the word "suave" improperly. A muffled crash suggested that one of them had grown annoyed enough to playfully shove the other into a wall...with a bit more force than was strictly necessary.

"I've said it before, I'll say it again: it's a wonder he's still alive," Leia snorted, shaking her head. Then she hefted her lamp and gestured to Luke. "Come on, we can search the left passage. It seems to stay pretty close to the surface."

More wreckage littered the chambers further in. Some of it might've been technology at some point, decayed beyond recall or repair, and some of it appeared to be the remains of old structures, all lit in the same dusty red glow that filtered through the cracks in the cave ceiling. Looking at the miserable hovels for too long made the hair on the back of Leia's neck stand up, so they quickly moved on.

They found one very narrow passage containing a pool of dubiously fresh water and four interconnected chambers that wound around each other in long, dizzying tunnels. Every turn grew more and more confusing, and Leia could almost have sworn that they walked in circles several times before discovering a passageway they were _sure_ hadn't been there before. Luke and Leia tried to keep a record of where they were turning until they came to one wide, wide space full of dark holes in the rock that looked like they could very easily house a speeder.

"Luke," Leia swallowed, "Do those look like-?"

"Dens?" Luke finished, "Yeah."

Both jumped when Leia's comlink crackled. "Han, what is it?" the Princess asked sharply.

 _"Bones. A lot of them,"_ Han answered rather sourly, _"And they're pretty big, too. Chewie and I are heading back up to the main chamber, I think it's time to go."_  
Anything capable of leaving the owners of such large bones in pieces was not something to be trifled with, and the skeletal remains didn't seem old enough to safely rule out the possibility of the cause of death still being on the premises.

Luke heard Leia's reply, but didn't really register it. There was something else here, somewhere in the caves, but he couldn't pinpoint it. The faded strains of whatever had been here before were making it hard to sense anything else -- not that he was particularly good at using the Force for that sort of thing just yet, but he was arguably better at it than he'd been before the incident with the old temple and Sarco Plank.  
Still, somewhere under the dark cloud of gloom the planet seemed to exude, there was something sharper, angrier, and certainly more focused than anything else in the caves. It was a very aware presence, though it faded in and out of the concealing fog, so to speak.

For one brief instant, Luke felt as though something was focused on him with an almost frantic determination, reaching out like a myriad of hands towards him, but before he could think too hard about that he felt a very definite sense of _look out!_

Leia's lamp reflected off of two small eyes, high in the dark of one of the holes, and then a massive form lumbered out of the dark with a complaining growl.  
"Rancor!" Leia shouted, followed by a string of decidedly un-princessly words.

Without waiting to see whether the other sounds were echoes or other rancors, Leia grabbed hold of Luke's hand and took off at a dead run. They were definitely not equipped to fight a rancor. Rock splintered and cracked behind them as the beast gave chase, and the pair tore through the tunnels, not really paying attention to where they were going until they circled back to the chamber again and found a second rancor eyeing them greedily.

Luke yelped and they scrambled out of the way, through the tunnels, looping around and around and around again, past the stagnant pool, past the armored giant beside it-

Wait.

" _Move_!" Leia tugged Luke along behind her, not taking the time to register the figure behind them.

Luke watched as the all too familiar helmet snapped around to stare at them in an almost bewildered fashion. Then the roaring of the rancors grew loud enough to shake the walls and Vader ignited his lightsaber.

"Oh _carabast_ ," Luke hissed.

He reached for the lightsaber hanging from his hip, a heavy reminder of his utter failure on Cymoon, but with a nearly triumphant sounding bellow, the rancor sow broke through the rock that thinned the tunnel. Forcing her way in, she reached for the first life form she saw. It happened to be Vader.  
This turned out to be fortunate for Luke and Leia, as dealing with a hungry rancor and its mate wholly occupied the Dark Lord long enough for them to find the entrance of the maze of tunnels, leaving him behind.

Han was waiting near the mouth of the cave.  
"Let's go, let's _go_!" he shouted hoarsely, waving them onwards.

"We know what's in here now, and it's rancors!" Luke puffed, legs churning.

"And Vader," Leia added.

"Oh great. That's just kriffing _wonderful_ ," Han snarled, "How in blazes did he find us here?!"

Luke stumbled when they made the transition from stone to sand, but quickly recovered. "It might not have been us," he reasoned. "There's a lot of creepy shadows in the Force here. I bet a Sith would be interested in that."

"Sure. We'll go with that," Han's answer was clipped, and Luke could tell that Han was still wary of this Force business.

Han Solo had the advantage of having been born with considerably longer legs than certain farm boys and princesses, and he reached the _Falcon_ before they did. Chewbacca, having even longer legs than he, was already inside warming up the engines.

"Chewie," Han barked, "Get ready to take off! We've got Imperials out there somewhere. Like heck Vader came all by his onesy."

The Corellian freighter rose unsteadily, then evened out. Han ran back to the boarding ramp and gestured wildly to the younger rebels. He squinted at the cave behind them and thought he spotted a tall figure exiting the shadows.  
No way.

"Come on!" Han leaned out as far as he dared, straining to catch something, anything.  
Leia gathered herself and sprang up in a jump that, quite frankly, should have been completely impossible for someone her size. Han caught her left hand and did his best to anchor her as she reached back for Luke.

He was almost close enough to reach when an invisible force seemed to catch him and fling him to the side. Leia shrieked a warning as the very much alive Vader -- the universe was terribly unfair, Han decided -- bore down on him.

"Chewie, get ready to circle around!" Han hollered.  
No way he was leaving the Kid with that thing.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of the last chapter, from the point of view of a certain Sith Lord

There had been considerable tension on the bridge of the _Executor_ during the journey to Lehon.

It should have been devoid of sentient life, ever since the fall of the Infinite Empire of the Rakata some thousands of years ago, and yet one of their probe droids had bounced back a signal that was most certainly not an ancient one.  
Logic would point to perhaps archaeologists, what few were brave or foolish enough to excavate a planet reputedly steeped in the Dark Side of the Force -- for those who believed in such things.

When one lived and worked aboard a Super Star Destroyer inhabited by a Sith Lord, however, logic took a backseat to self-preservation, and when Lord Vader insisted that there were Rebels on Lehon, no one said a word that wasn't "yes milord".

The ship had taken on a grim feeling of _anticipation_ as they drew closer to the Unknown Regions that had as much to do with the fear of traveling in uncharted space as it did with its master's mood.

Darth Vader was not _anxious_. Sith Lords did not get _anxious_. ~~Fathers did, parents did~~ but he was merely....pensive.

The Boy was somewhere on Lehon, he could sense that much, at least. But the echoes in the Force of the Infinite Empire of the Rakata -- he held back a scoff at the irony of a long-dead thing calling itself "infinite", resolutely pushed away thoughts tugging him towards the future of the Empire he now served -- swirled out from the planet like a putrid miasma, carrying traces of the ancient Dark Side wielders who had ruled 500 worlds and then destroyed themselves in a civil war, and the cloud obscured much of Skywalker's signature.

He hadn't even been able to say with any degree of certainty where Luke even _was_ on the planet until they'd approached the atmosphere, being able to sense no more than a heavy gloom and old, old hatred until the _Executor_ was practically hovering over the very island the Rebels were hiding on. At that point, one bright, blinding presence had flared up, then dimmed.  
Vader didn't know whether that was due to the fog of ill-intent that still shrouded Lehon -- though faded to no more than echoes over the last thousand years -- or whether something had happened to the boy, and he had no intention of waiting to find out.

Not because he was _concerned_ , that certainly wasn't why he was not waiting for a patrol to join him as he headed for his shuttle. Skywalker simply had a habit of ~~getting into the worst sorts of trouble~~ evading capture every time it seemed the Empire should have easily apprehended him, and Vader was taking no chances. A hiss of static that might've been an irritated sigh at some point left his vocalizer when he caught sight of a heavily modified Corellian YT-1300 light freighter. If he had not felt the Force urging him to move quickly, he'd have scuttled the perpetual irritation to his fleet then and there, but his shuttle was not heavily armed and he _really_ didn't feel like ripping the _Falcon_ apart himself when he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Retrieving his _son_ , for instance.

Preferably before the rest of the Empire figured out that Skywalker was the pilot who had destroyed the Death Star.

There was little on the island of interest to Vader or, presumably, rebels save for a cliff face that was half crumbled on the western side, full of wide spaces that seemed to have been clawed out of the stone ages ago. Vader did not break his stride once he left his shuttle, making straight for the widest of the cave mouths. Skywalker was somewhere within the cliff face, of that he was certain.

Vader let the Force direct him, using the effervescent splash of _Light_ that was Luke Skywalker as a compass, but even so the system of caves seemed to conspire against him, determined to confound his steps and keep the boy just out of his reach. Twice he had sensed his son -- and Princess Organa, if he was not mistaken -- close enough that he should have been able to reach out and touch them, and yet they were nowhere in sight. The shadows coiled around his feet as if they had a life of their own, and the soft rasp of his cape against his armor could almost have been the hissing, mocking laughter of things better left relegated to ancient history. 

Luke's Force signature was still bright, but a certain anxiety had begun to color it at the edges, mixing with an already tense wariness. Well, at least he was on his guard for once. That thought struck Vader as odd a moment later. It would have been to his advantage for Skywalker to have been more unwary, why should his caution please Vader? Perhaps because it meant that, untrained though he was, he had grown powerful enough to sense the malevolent atmosphere of Lehon -- perhaps even enough to be able to sense _him_.  
It was no doubt only a weak recognition of his presence, but that would be rectified soon enough. Once the boy knew the _truth_ , Vader was convinced that the faint connection already between them would only strengthen.

He just had to _find_ Luke first.

Something moved nearby, something hungry, irate, and very very large. Even without hearing the bellowing of an enraged rancor sow, Vader might have guessed what had happened. Luke Skywalker truly had some of the most abominable luck in the galaxy. Of course, if he was right, Solo, the Wookiee, and the Princess were present as well, which likely had some effect on the situation. Vader stopped next to a pool of stagnant water that had clearly once been part of a spring of some kind before falling rubble had blocked the flow. He turned his helmet one way, then the other, listening and stretching out with his senses at the same time. He could feel the rancor close by, and decided he'd prefer not to tangle with it if he did not have to. Luke was close as well, close enough to-

To run right past him in a blind panic.

The Princess was in the lead, clutching Luke's hand and towing him along behind her in a startling show of strength, considering her size.  
_"Move!"_ she shouted when Luke's steps faltered. 

He'd seen Vader. Large eyes -- _blue,_ Vader thought absently, _like mi-_ \-- seemed to grow even wider and he felt the boy's spike of fear, sharper than the overall dismay he'd been all but projecting in the last few minutes.  
Had the dark lord been helmetless, Luke would have seen his eyes widen in a mirror of his own disbelief. Of all the ways he'd pictured catching up to the boy, this had certainly not been one of them.

He took a step forward, knowing he could easily outpace the two young rebels, but the splintering of stone, a fiery curse from the boy, and a shrill warning from the Force left him to whirl around, lightsaber drawn, to face not one but _two_ rancors, a bull and a sow, trying to force their way through the narrow passage. They were just bulky enough that only one of them would be able to make it through. That it would be the smaller of the two was no comfort: the sow was just as deadly as the bull, with long grasping arms and razor sharp claws.

It would not have been out of the range of his abilities to kill it, to kill both of them. Vader had brought down much larger things. He willed away an image in his memory of the shuttle on Vrogas Vas falling, crashing with Luke still inside -- no, it was nowhere near the same situation. Luke was well behind him and in far less danger from the rancors than he was at the moment. There was a faint whisper in the Force, a premonition of sorts, that if he were to stay to deal with the rancors, he would lose his opportunity to capture Skywalker.

The rancor sow made a grab for the man in black, and he reacted a split second before she reached him. The sow received an amputated set of fingers for her trouble, and her screech set Vader's teeth rattling. He did not stay to let her try again.

Luke was ahead of him, he could see him. Solo -- _curse that smuggler_ \-- stood on the ramp of the Corellian freighter, shouting at them to hurry as the ship began to lift off from the island. Hadn't they noticed the Star Destroyer floating overhead? Any escape attempt would be short-lived at best. Despite this, Princess Leia made an impressive leap onto the boarding ramp, hair flying as she reached back for Luke, and Vader found himself pushing away a sense of _familiarity_ that should have made no sense at all.

Luke looked back for a split second, and there was indecision in his eyes. He seemed torn between escaping and turning back to fight. One hand was on his lightsaber _~~my lightsaber~~_ at his belt, and Vader suspected he had some inclination to challenge him again the way he had on Cymoon.  
An attempt to avenge Kenobi's death or, more likely, his father's "death", no doubt. Vader curled his lip at the thought.  
There were obviously a great many lies and half-truths they would both have to sort through.  
Perhaps it would be enough to start a conversation between them without typical Skywalker stubbornness getting in the way.

"Luke! Come on!" Leia shouted, reaching out with one hand as Solo held her other hand to keep her steady. "We have to go!"

_I think not, my son. I think not._

It was simplicity itself to reach out with the Force, knocking the boy off his feet. 

Luke rolled across the sand and came up in a crouch, lightsaber already ignited long before Vader was within a feet of him. He wasn't going down without a fight.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And picking up where we left off at the end of chapter 1 once again

The Sith had caught him off-guard, Luke couldn't help but admit that.

He'd been so focused on reaching the _Falcon_ , and Leia's outstretched hand, that he'd failed to be wary of his surroundings. He had not expected to be thrown out of the Princess's reach by an unseen hand. He rolled into a crouch and ignited his father's lightsaber, tense and waiting for that attack that was surely to come. It hadn't felt so much like being picked up and thrown, Luke decided, as being batted away. He could not say for certain _why_ , but he was suddenly reminded of a hiking trip he'd taken with his Aunt Beru, years ago.

The harvest had been good and for once in nearly a year they had a day off. Beru had decided to take Luke hiking in the canyon for his twelfth birthday, and they'd accidentally discovered a pack of anoobas down one of the gullies. Beru had kept them out of sight and upwind, careful and quiet, and pointed out the alpha pair. She had liked animals -- even some of the dangerous ones -- and they had watched the pack for several minutes. Luke remembered seeing one of the cubs trying to start a mock fight with its siblings. When none of the other cubs would oblige, it turned its attention onto the alpha male, charging several times before the adult anooba grew tired of his offspring's aggression. Luke had been startled when the alpha male pulled himself upright and administered a cuff that sent the rowdy cub head over heels.  
"Anoobas don't have time-outs," Beru had said with a shrug.

Luke supposed he knew what that little anooba felt like now, and he shook the sand out of his hair in annoyance. 

He didn't know why he was _surprised_. He'd witnessed the Sith using the Force to lift an entire AT-AT walker, after all. A human being would've been no trouble at all.  
 _And yet I can't do much more than levitate the occasional noodle_ , Luke thought sourly, before trying to remind himself to be patient. One didn't simply acquire that sort of experience overnight, he supposed.

The _Millenium Falcon_ was hovering overhead, just a little too high to reach. While Luke knew that he was capable of jumping higher and farther than the average human with the assistance of the Force, he wasn't sure he'd be able to call on it _now_ , especially with his attention divided. And there was, he supposed, always the risk that Vader might just yank him back down again. Luke knew he wasn't strong enough to fight Darth Vader. Not yet, anyway. And that stung, knowing he didn't stand a chance against the man who killed his father. He was stronger, more experienced, and certainly of a more murderous temperament.  
Which meant that Luke was going to have to fight smart, and find a way to use his size to his advantage. 

_Oh sure_ , Luke thought sarcastically to himself as Vader approached, a bit slower than expected, _Because that worked out so well for everyone on Vrogas Vas._

"There is no escape for you this time, young one." Vader sounded calm. He almost _always_ sounded calm, probably because of that vocoder or whatever he used to make his voice sound like that.  
Luke found it infuriating.

In the past, when he'd imagined confrontations with Darth Vader, he usually thought of saying something snappy and courageous like, _"Not today, Vader!"_ , or _"Hello, my name is Luke Skywalker, you killed my father: prepare to die",_ but the confrontation on Cymoon had put that sort of heroic nonsense somewhere further to the back of his mind, replaced with something a little more cynical. The fact of the matter was that Vader had murdered so many people that it was very likely that he wouldn't even remember the name _Anakin Skywalker_ if prompted. And Luke didn't intend to prompt him.

He scrambled to his feet and kept his lightsaber up in a somewhat defensive position. If he could just hold him off long enough for Han to bring the _Falcon_ around and fire on Vader, Luke would have a chance to escape. He just had to survive that long.

* * *

  

The boy's form was atrocious. It looked like the unholy spawn of Djem so, Soresu, and an amateur shockball player. Darth Vader couldn't help being the slightest bit appalled, though the majority of his contempt was reserved solely for Obi-wan Kenobi, who had kept the boy twenty years and had not seen fit to teach him even the most basic uses of the Force. _Twenty-one, now,_ he reminded himself, _Twenty-one years robbed of the chance to learn from his father, to become strong_. A familiar rage burned at the back of his throat, coursed through his veins like fire. Vader fed the anger, drawing strength from it, and continued to approach.

"That's no form Kreel taught you," he said, almost dismissively.

Luke bristled at this, and there was a swell of anger from him, but it was worth noting that he _did_ adjust his grip on the saber and its angle into something a little closer to Djem so. Not that he was likely to even know the form or any of the history connected to it. No matter. There would be time enough to teach him the seven forms later. After he'd been told the truth about his heritage. Vader was certain that once Luke knew how Kenobi had lied to him, knew that he wasn't an orphan at all, he would not hesitate to join his father -- though he foresaw some difficulty in convincing him to leave his friends behind. Skywalkers always were too quick to befriend and attach to others.

A flash of warning in the Force gave him just enough time to leap back out of the way as laser fire peppered the sand where he had just been standing. A growl not picked up by the vocoder rasped in his throat when he looked up to see the ship wheeling around for another pass. _The smuggler._ He would not keep him from the boy. Vader would make sure of it. He raised a hand, focusing on the ship and intending to destroy part of the engine, much as he had disabled the shuttle on Vrogas Vas.

He should not have taken his attention from Luke.

* * *

  

Luke felt the Force shift around him, cold and heavy, and saw Vader lift his hand towards the _Millenium Falcon_. Echoes of Y-wings crashing, burning, of entire platoons dying played through his memories. He could not let Han and Chewie and Leia suffer the same fate. He _would not_. Luke raised his saber and, knowing full well that this was a very foolish decision, charged. He pulled up short at the last moment, guessing that Vader would sense his attack coming, and when his opponent turned swiftly with his own lightsaber ignited, Luke already had his up in a guard position.  
He caught the Sith's blade on his own, and for just a second felt a surge of elation. _I'm doing it! I'm still alive!_

But Vader outclassed him in height, weight, experience, and physical power, and Luke's arms were already shaking under the strain. He wouldn't be able to hold position for long. For an impossibly long two seconds, he held Vader's gaze. He wasn't sure how he knew he was meeting the man's eyes -- if he _was_ a man, and not a droid of some kind. Though Luke was pretty sure droids couldn't use the Force -- but Vader's stare felt like it was searching for something. Did he recognize him? Luke had always been told he resembled his father. Maybe Vader remembered killing Anakin Skywalker after all.   
He almost said something about it, but in the next second, as he glanced down to gauge the position of the lightsabers, his eye caught on the two hilts. This close together, he was struck by the similarity between his father's blade and Darth Vader's.

As near as he could see, the blade emitter was designed the same -- if a differently colored metal on Vader's -- and both had a magnetic stabilizing ring, they even shared the same distinctive ribbed grip. Luke had seen a fair handful of lightsabers by this time, most of them in Grakkus's collection, and thus far no two had been the same.  
But these were nearly identical.  
This occurred to him just as he realized that Vader was not pressing the attack. He was merely holding his blade in place, watching to see what Luke would do next.   
_This isn't right. Something isn't right._ Luke found himself looking for a way to safely disengage. He wanted nothing more than to run.

On a sudden impulse, he threw himself backward, flat to the sand, and watched Vader's saber fall through the place where his own blade had just been. Seconds later, the _Falcon_ made her second pass, firing a single burst right at Vader's feet. He leaped back, and Luke leaped up. The ramp was still extended. He could still make it. Luke switched off his lightsaber and ran for all he was worth.

"Kid! Here!" 

Han clung to the edge of the ramp, reaching out as far as he could. Luke jumped, missed, turned his momentum into an impromptu somersault and tried again.

"Lower!" Han shouted over his shoulder, and lay flat on his stomach, reaching out again. Luke jumped once more and this time, their fingers touched. It was a fragile grip, but it was there.

Han risked letting go of the ramp with his other hand to grip Luke's wrist, hauling him up with a grunt of exertion until he could grasp the edge of the ramp himself. For approximately three seconds, Luke felt an intense tugging sensation, more like a grip than the cuff he'd felt earlier. He was being pulled.

"Han, pull me up!" he yelped, flailing his other hand up, trying to find purchase on the metal.

"Chewie, get us out of here!" Han hollered, then he braced his boots against the gears and pulled as hard as he could. There was a curious amount of resistance, more than there should've been, considering how small the Kid was.  
They dangled precariously over the sandy beach, and the dark blob below that was Vader. Suddenly, the resistance faded and up came Luke with one last pull. 

The ramp retracted and both men lay exhausted on the deck, gasping.   
"What," Han breathed, "in _blazes_ was that about?"

Luke didn't answer at first. He had heard a voice just before the grip around him had eased. Whether it was out loud or in his head he didn't know, and he wasn't sure he'd wanted to know.  
 _Luke! You don't understand-_ and then it had seemed to cut itself off. It didn't sound like Ben, but it was still somehow familiar.

Leia abruptly appeared from the cockpit. "All yours, Solo," she said tersely, "Let's get going before that destroyer sends out a few squadrons to meet us."

"Ain't gonna argue with that, sweetheart," Han grunted, and pulled himself up to take the controls. He paused at the door and swallowed hard before reluctantly muttering, "Er...good flying, Princess. You're not bad with the _Falcon_."

She offered a wry smile in return. "Let's save the compliments for when we get out of here alive," she suggested, and then knelt next to Luke.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

Luke had pulled himself into a sitting position and was turning the hilt of his lightsaber over and over in his hands, staring at it. He looked up after a moment, lips pressed into a thin line.

"There's something I'm missing, Leia," he murmured. "Something important, I can feel it."   
He frowned down at the hilt and returned it to his belt. "There's something I'm not being told." _And I gotta feeling that I'm going to find out what it is before too long._

> # Finis?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the end of this little fic, but I've left it open just in case I ever want to continue it someday. On the off chance I do, this would become an au.  
> You see, Luke has a few Questions about those lightsabers now. Oh, for a while he tries to tell himself "they both studied under Obi-wan, maybe that's why Vader's lightsaber is almost identical to my father's." But he knows in his heart that the answer is going to be more complicated than that.
> 
> Yoda might tell him something, or he might now. You can never tell with goblins. But either way, when Luke finally gets to Bespin, he is wary, he is suspicious, and he's figured out more than Vader thinks he has.


End file.
